'Bean's Ramblings'
You got them to your site, but it’s still not bringing in the business. Live Case Studies on improving the User Experience on your website.
To sign-up go to http://techbizconnection.org/
Usability and user experience tests are an excellent way of discovering why your site is not performing like you thought it would. It is surprising to find out about what both web designers and marketers often miss, which are key ingredients of what your audience can see and not see on the website. How do usability best practices impact the success of your website? What are the key components to usability? In this session, you’ll learn the importance of having a website built with usability in mind from a sales and lead generation standpoint. With our panel of experts, we will cover the basics of usability and the role this concept plays in making these efforts successful with LIVE CASE STUDIES. Some of the topics we’ll cover include:
What are the most important usability considerations?
How are visitors getting lost or confused on your website?
What are some of the best ways to find and understand your offer?
How do you apply design-based thinking into your website?
PANELISTS
Dr. Joely Gardner | President | Human Factors Research
Asa licensed psychologist,Dr. Gardner captures the emotional essence of what customers consider a great experience. She then helps her clients tooperationalize that experience, measure and manage it.Dr. Gardner’s consulting clients range from startups in mobile technology and social networking to Fortune 100 companies. Clients include Intuit, Hewlett Packard, Quest Diagnostics Clinical Trials Division, Invitrogen, and Cricket Communications to name a few. Previously, she was the Director of Customer Experience Research for France Telecom R&D in San Francisco, and is the co-author of nearly 40 books with publishers such as Harper & Row, IDG, and QUE.
Jeof Bean | Principal | Del Mar Research & Consulting
Jeof specializes in increasing client growth, while decreasing the uncertainty and costs of product development and marketing. Jeof’s 20+ years of experience spans from small innovative technology companies to larger successful organizations like ComplianceMAX, ProMedia Wireless, LPL, AT&T / Bell Labs, and Quest Diagnostics. He has an M.S. in Business Management, a B.S. in Psychology / Marketing and has served as Adjunct Professor of Business Management and Marketing. Jeof is on the Board of Directors of the San Diego Software Industry Council’s (SDSIC) User Experience Group and User Experience expert review panel; author of several marketing, business and product development articles; and a frequent guest speaker.
Frank Mead | former eCommerce Manager | Apple &Targus
Frank is a creative leader who has turned around business units in Fortune 250 companies, consulted to many start-ups and has created dominant, sustainable sales strategies across a variety of industries. Helping entrepreneurs in diverse industries such as dental care, restaurant, online music sales, musical artist management, and high-tech network security, provide Frank with visibility into which business practices work and which do not. Frank served as the eCommerce Sales and Marketing Manager at Targus, as the eCommerce Manager at Apple Computer and as a Marketing Manager at Gateway.
To sign-up go to http://techbizconnection.org/node/48
February 1st, 2010
The Flip Ultra's customer experience advantage is market defining
The economy is difficult, but there are some companies that are cutting through the noise of the broadcast and media press and bewildering their competitors by being better, different and profitable, now.
Certainly the handy example is the iPhone and Apple Macintosh (don’t worry, other examples are on the way). I’ve heard people say is – that’s Macintosh and that’s proprietary… What is most striking is how unique and proprietary the customer experience is. I think early on, they discovered that the user experience was incredibly important and they took into consideration needs and wants of potential customers very early in the development process.
There is a very dangerous spiral that customer experience can help many companies avoid or delay. You can keep putting more technology or features in your product or service and lowering your price, but that really is a very slippery slope.
Now, what’s happening is, certainly the iPhone is an example of, a highly rated product by their users, even though some of the functions that it does actually take longer than a wireless device that has a less great user experience. More importantly though, is the willingness to pay for and engage with the iPhone is much higher than its smart phone rivals.
Netflix is another one where I really admire how they’ve provided a great customer experience with a product- service hybrid. They understood the wants, and they understood the needs of customers through the whole process in the context of the market environment. They’ve got a special agreement with the post office, right? They’ve got the DVDs they deliver quickly and soon they’ll be uploading and downloading video streams.
Their web site is part of the pre and post purchase process. Netflix provide that unique customer experience. They altered the game board, redefined value and forced competitors to change or down the spiral and away. It’s easy to drop the price, it’s easy to throw in more features, it is not easy to create, execute or compete with a well honed customer experience.
One of my favorite examples, because I personally like it is the Flip Ultra video camera, by Pure Digital Technologies. It is a small hand held device. Easy to learn and use, all the software the user needs is inside it, nothing to install. A simple USB arm flips out the side and plugs into your PC. It becomes another drive. I think it’s really wonderful. They have created a new market segment and new revenues, in Sony’s market (for 25 or 30 years?), catching the legacy player off guard.
A company called Pure Digital Technologies went and sorted out the wants and needs of the customers (prospects actually). They mastered the voice of the prospect and intelligence about the market environment. The main value drivers were record, connect and share, quickly and easily. Not a lot of tools. Not extra software. Customers want to upload to YouTube and share family.
“The ease of use is incredibly seductive,” says Amazon.com vice-president of electronics – Money/CNN January 27, 2009
Pure Digital Technologies, the makers of the Flip Ultra, probably do have a toolbox of technology they could put against Sony. But, they didn’t. What they did was they came in at industry price, well below $200, it fits in the palm of your hand.
Let’s look at some of the results that support the user experience and how wonderful and important it is right now. Between May 2007 and December 2008, and Pure Digital Technologies generated $300 million in revenues from the sale of 2 million units garnering 17% market share and on the rise. This is market share and revenue that didn’t exist before and it caused Sony’s existing market share, 21%, was flat and declined in value.
What about the value creation with customer experience? Last March, Cisco announced that it would pay approximately $590 million in stock and $15 million in retention-based equity incentives for continuing employees, in exchange for all the shares of Pure Digital.
In April, Sony launched a press campaign explaining why they missed the market and announcing their fix for it as the Webbie HD. A key point was made that the introduction of the Webbie “Symbolizes an important shift in Sony’s culture.” But that shift was not reflected in the rest of Sony’s story about the Webbie. While price-conscious Americans are mentioned as the target market, no mention of the customer experience was included in how the Webbie came to be. Now Cisco and Sony are competitors. This is too interesting to ignore!
Do you or will you define and create customer experiences that will make your offers better, different and more profitable, even in a tough economy?
September 13th, 2009
How are you? Well I hope!
I want to let you know about a special networking and presentation event at the San Diego Software Industry Council. It is about the return on investment of User Experience development, design and market performance AND how you can do it in house, with the team you have now.
This strategy enables businesses to produce more innovative products that meet or exceed market needs with resources they already have.
I am presenting this along with colleagues Sean Van Tyne, User Experience Director of Global Architecture, Fair Isaac; Tina Sing, Sr. Product Manager at Oracle and Mark Hall, Senior User Experience Analyst, at I DRIVE SAFELY, LLC.
We will be concentrating on the in-sourcing model since several companies have told us this would be most valuable in a slowing economy.
More details are below. I hope you can join us!
Jeof
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UX with What You Got: In-sourcing Your User Experience
San Diego Software Industry Council User Experience Business Information Group
INTUIT, Bennett Conference Room, Bldg. 37545 Torrey Santa Fe Road
Thursday, March 05, 2009
5:30 pm – 6:00 pm: Registration, Networking and Refreshments
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm: Program
REGISTER: www.sdsic.org/events.aspx
In the context of a slowing economy, you can gain the ROI of User Experience with the resources that you have. We will show you how to use existing resources to design user experiences that increase customer satisfaction, adoption, retention and revenue. This strategy enables business to produce more innovative products that meet or exceed market needs – with resources that you already have!
Moderator:
Sean Van Tyne, User Experience Director of Global Architecture, Fair Isaac, www.fairisaac.com
Panelists:
Teena Singh, Sr. Product Manager, Oracle, www.oracle.com
Mark Hall, Senior User Experience Analyst, I DRIVE SAFELY, www.idrivesafely.com
Jeofrey Bean, Principal, Del Mar Research & Consulting, LLC, www.delmarresearch.com
February 26th, 2009
It’s going to be interesting to see how the multi-company alignment that Google has put together gains traction to redefine open architecture, wireless communications and very interestingly, local mobile services and its demands for advertising.
The potential to reach certain markets, segments, individuals no less, with pin-point accuracy and timing will have been redefined by technology. Location based services will drive the need for companies developing applications to fully understand and embrace what is known as “the user experience (UX).”
Instead of merely slapping on a graphical user interface, or even a well developed GUI and asking the user to adopt and fill in the blanks, the experience of the user, no matter what the device, must be designed to not only attract and engage users, but to do it in a way that retains them consistently for advertisers.
This strategic alliance portends to not only seed innovation with openness and tools, but to change business models, and in doing so, break many of the rules that have kept many institutional players in business.
It certainly will be interesting to see the strategic and tactical responses of those companies with a vested interest in keeping the status quo. This is one of those interesting and dynamic times, that is extra engaging, particularly for those who are experienced in developing and marketing technology solutions.
What is old is new again in the technology, applications development and marketing worlds. In this case, it is resource rich Google that is pushing the envelope in a new sensible open way, and that’s why Google’s got game.
November 8th, 2007
I am glad you are here! I hope you find the commentary about marketing, technology and business development interesting and enjoyable. Times are not dull!
-Jeof
October 4th, 2007